<>The air and water permeabilities of a building are among its most important characteristics as they control the way the structure will perform throughout its entire life. Too little or too much can both cause rot and decay as well as seriously affecting the fabric of the building and the health of the people who live or work inside – particularly any with asthma or allergies.

<>Numerous regulations and standards govern the area, including Building Regulations’ Part L, yet testing has traditionally been hard and longwinded. Versaperm equipment can overcome this and test the permeability of materials, components and entire structures, including walls, bricks, plaster, plastics, DPCs, coatings, felts, sarking board, mastics, laminates and a wide range of commonly used products.

<>Versaperm equipment is unusual as it can measure very thick samples such as wall cross-sections. Using the standard flat sample chamber it can measure samples up to 50mm thick, which is sufficient for most items used by the building industry.

<>However, the company also has a number of non-standard chamber configurations for measuring almost any thickness of building material. It also has specialist equipment for measuring the leakage rate of adhesives, mastics and other sealing products.

The company developed its own permeability equipment, which can produce accurate and reliable results in the parts per million – sometimes in the parts per hundreds of million, range. With some materials this can be achieved in as little as 30 minutes, but even with hard to measure foils, results can normally be turned around in a day.

<>Versaperm equipment can be also configured to measure the permeability of many gases including Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, water vapour and hydrocarbons. Additionally, the company offers a laboratory testing service for companies that test too few samples to make the purchase of equipment viable.